Fishy Sundried Tomatoes?

Last night my husband and I met some friends at Cheesecake Factory. They were coming into town for the evening and that's where they wanted to go. I ordered Farfalle with Chicken and Roasted Garlic (Bow-Tie Pasta, Chicken, Mushrooms, Tomato, Pancetta, Peas and Caramelized Onions in a Roasted Garlic-Parmesan Cream Sauce). My husband ordered Fettucini with Chicken and Sun-Dried Tomatoes (In a Sun-Dried Tomato Sauce with Garlic, Cream and Parmesan Cheese).

A few minutes in I notice he's not eating much, he says there is some weird taste to it. It's pasta, chicken, sun dried tomatoes and a cream sauce...it can't be too strange. However, after everyone tasted his pasta, we all agreed it didn't taste right and there was a fishy after taste. We finally get our server to come by and tell her that it tastes off and she tried to argue with us. She grabbed a fork and tried it herself, then said it always tastes like that, they always use clean pans when cooking, there isn't anything wrong with it. She set it down and came back by a few minutes later and said she also noticed the fishy aftertaste. We mentioned that my dish, which was very tastey, had the same sauce as his and there was no fish flavor to it. So she disappears for awhile and says that the chef said that sundried tomatoes often have that flavor?!?!?!?

So has anyone else ever ran into sundried tomatoes tasting like fish? We think we were just being fed a line of crap. We asked another server to send over a manager, but our server came back and said the manager was busy but willing to give us a free slice of cheesecake. I just wanted to know if any of the cooks/chefs/foodies had ever ran into fishy sundried tomatoes before we call the manager. We are calling regardless, we had several other service issues, but since a manager couldn't be bothered last night, we'll just handle it today.

Waitaminit. I'm still stuck on "She grabbed a fork and tried it herself." The server ate from your plate?

Waitaminit. I'm still stuck on "She grabbed a fork and tried it herself." The server ate from your plate?

I was waiting for that!



Actually, there are so many things wrong with this experience, it makes me feel kinda icky.

yes she did! we were all kinda taken back by that! my husband was pretty much done with it before she did that, but that pretty much sealed it for us!

we were going to call management anyways because the server acted like we were trying to get a free meal and she was really put off by that. we never asked for it to be taken off and would have been just as happy if they would have remade it or gotten him something else that was edible. she also messed up the bills and then proceeded to argue with us about it and acted like it was our fault the bills were wrong. we had told her to just run them as they were since she wasn't inclined to correct them. she did eventually figure out where the issue was and say "oh, i see what you were talking about" after she had ran the charges on everyones cards.

WOW! Unacceptable on so many levels. I do hope you told them where to stick that comped cheesecake. I would immeditely call and write the local manager. If not satisfied, repeat the call and letters to HQ.
Bill

Yet another reason chain restaurants are so wonderful, ! :rNOToll:

Rude, rude, rude!! I can't believe she took a bite off your plate! i can't believe the mgr. was "too busy" to come over. At the very least, I can't believe all they would give you was a free piece of cheesecake and not offer to make you another dish. I would certainly contact them and write a letter! Everything about your evening there was unacceptable!

I've had 2 tomatoes on 2 different occasions recently that had a fishy taste out of my own refrigerator. They were both old and should have been eaten several days sooner. I had NO idea this could happen (somehow I've been able to eat them immediately in the past?), but I do now. Thank you for helping me feel a little saner. I don't think at all that it's an issue with just sun-dried tomatoes.

So a fishy taste from tomatoes. I have heard of some tomatoes being GM'd by splicing flounder genes into the plants to help them resist cold weather. Just wondering if that may be a contributing factor?

Hubby called and spoke with a manager, Justin, who was very nice, apologized numerous times for the poor service and bad food. They are going to reimburse us for the meal, but more importantly going to figure out what went wrong with the service and why a manager never came by per policy when there is a complaint. I really hope they can get this serving issue straightened out, our other meals were pretty good and who can argue with cheesecake, but bad service can leave a really bad taste...kinda like fishy sundried tomatoes.